Saturday’s AFC Wild Card matchup between the Bills and Texans served as the season’s final broadcast for the Monday Night Football crew, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a fan upset about that.
Booger McFarland struggled all season in the booth, and as we saw with Jason Witten’s demonstrably awful MNF stint, Booger has turned into an internet punchline. Saturday’s performance in a crucial playoff broadcast didn’t do Booger any favors.
When the ESPN commentator wasn’t filling time with platitudes like “playmakers have to make plays” or making a case for the league’s second all-time leading rusher to maybe be in the Hall of Fame, he was showing a complete lack of awareness to the game he was supposed to be analyzing. It happened as the Bills faced a third-and-10 play with 15 seconds remaining in regulation.
on 3RD AND 10, booger mcfarland suggests the bills run a quick draw and then SPIKE THE BALL ON 4TH DOWN
you cannot make this stuff up pic.twitter.com/Y3lC7W03AH
— Nathan Marzion (@nathanmarzion) January 5, 2020
Booger suggested that the Bills run a quick draw play on third and 10. Then, he wanted Buffalo to stop the clock with a spike on what would have been fourth down — which, uh, would have lost the game for Buffalo in regulation.
Obviously, Booger wasn’t aware of the down and distance in a crucial juncture of a playoff game — not something you want from a national broadcast analyst. His play-by-play partner, Joe Tessitore, seemingly noticed the huge error from Booger. Rather than call Booger’s mishap out during the broadcast, Tessitore repeated the down and distance after some awkward silence.
Publicly, ESPN has stood by its MNF crew, but this wasn’t the performance ESPN would have liked to head into the offseason with. It’s time to make a change.
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